Well

That's about as long a time as I can recall not posting. Two reasons for this: personal issues and the fact that I'm writing more non-political stuff over on Facebook (and you can find me there under the name Joe Vecchio if you're on that as well).

I saw an article in the NY Times that said that 6% of Americans think the Moon landing was a fake. That may not seem like a lot, but consider that 6% of 300 million is 18 million, which is roughly the population of the state of Florida, or the combined population of the fifteen least populated states in the country.

39%, apparently, don't "believe" in evolution and while I'm on the subject, I hate using that term: evolution is no more a matter of belief, than "believing" in gravity or Newtonian physics. At any rate, it's just more proof, to me, that the country is getting dumber and meaner.

On other notes, my work has gotten me to tread some new waters: I downloaded the evaluation version of Windows 7 and installed it on one of the machines at work, I also downloaded Ubuntu (A Linux-based open source operating system) and installed it on my home computer. So far, I am impressed with both, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to learn about them.

Limericks

MadKane expresses her feelings in a double limerick about Rush and Sanford called De-Moralized?:

Rush claims that Obama’s to blame
For Sanford’s disgrace and his shame:
The stimulus bill
Destroyed Sanford’s will.
Wow, even for Limbaugh, that’s lame.

When a Democrat strays — no excuse!
Just right-wing attacks and abuse.
But conservative sins
Are spinned — turned to wins.
Try to reason with Rush? It’s no use!

On the flip side, Obama's not good enough for people at the other end. Here's my limerick:

The Sideshow and Greenwald agree
Obama's like Bush, don'tcha see
They yearn for Kucinich
Like Popeye for spinach
Maybe he'll win one next century!

Yer Weekend Entertainment

I don't normally do this sort of thing, but this made me laugh so much I had to steal, er, share it. It's a letter to Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos. I should point out that the poll results on the original post indicate that nearly 20% of the readers think this letter is a fake, and the sad truth is that right-wingers are so insane that it's hard to tell what's a parody and what's not. Here's the letter, copied and pasted exactly as it appeared on dKos:

dear socialist fuckstick,

i am well awear of the fact that liberals are immune to logic and reason, but allow me to try to prove to you that you are communist scum thrugh something called the scientific method:

1 a) FACT: you suck obamas cock every chance youget. you defend everythign he does and says and you are nothing more than an apologist. this makes you complicit in obamas actions.

1 b) FACT: obama is a well known socialist. this is evident his policies and his love of SELFDESCRIBED COMMUNISTS LIKE BILL AYERS!!!! so dont thinkthat he can hide his true nature for much longer. he will eventully be exposed and impeached. SOCIALISM CANNOT WORK OR RUSSIA WOULD STILL EXIST AND THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE LOST THE COLD WAR TO REAGAN!!! retard.

1 c) you are thusly a pro forma socialist; whether you like it or not. logic dictates this.

(2) FACT: you, sir, are a illegal immigrant. i dont give two shits whether you are an american citizen or not: you came here on taxpayer expense and you continue to drain our limited resources. you should be ashamed and go back to guatemala or whatever fucking middleeastern asshole you came from and try to sell yor leftwing bullshit there.

(3) FACT: you are also OBJECTIVELY ANTIAMERICAN!!!!!!!! dont even try to deny this for there is ample prof: in 2004 you openly supported the murder of four brave american soldiers in falluja. you tryed to weasel out of your responsiblity, but you cant hide the fact that you hate america and american soldiers and you love al queda and other muslim terrorists who have killed THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS!!!! and will never stop unless they are killed. and whose going to kill them? you? LOL you dont even own a gun because you leftofascists want to repel the second amendent.

(4) FACT: it is clear that you are a socialist illegal immigrant america hater. there is prima facies proof as above. and if logic and science says you are scum then you are scum (remember global warming? no proof, just science and that makes it true for you liberals) no matter what you think. however, i dont think you are a homo, just a homo enabler.

this doesnt mean that we cant have common ground. if you stop publishing antiamerican communist screeds, then i will stop hating you. fair?

sincerely yours

glenn

Insurance

The only kind I want

Boondoggles

Some of you know that I'm a military man, an Air Force vet who, while hardly an ideal airman, is proud of the work I did in calibration at Air Force bases in Japan and Montana. I happen to love fighter jets and enjoyed working with F-16s, which are sleek and beautiful to behold bot in the air and on the ground. I also have a love of the great battleships, from the American Iowa class to the German Bismarck and the Japanese Yamato, the latter being the largest ever built.

And some of you may have been reading this blog long enough to know that I am not one who is squeamish about using military power if I fee there is a real threat involved. I was against the war in Iraq from the very beginning because (and to be as brief as possible) it was clear to me that it was completely unnecessary. It seems to me that the best way to defeat small bands of terrorists is by a combination of military intelligence, infiltration, and most important, setting a better example for the world so that people have no reason to become terrorists (though of course people driven insane by secular or religious propaganda will always find a reason to commit violence in the name of whatever cause). Anyway, my point is, I'm not a pacifist, never have been.

So it disturbs me a great deal when I read that Congress is threatening to over-ride a Presidential veto and continue the production of the F-22 Raptor, a plane even the Pentagon does not want. Now, the F-22 is also a beautiful airplane and perhaps the deadliest fighter ever made, but who exactly are we going to fight with it? Unless there are people in positions of power looking to start a major conflict, we don't need any more of these birds in the air (we have roughly a hundred or so active). And the charge that stopping production would cost jobs is ridiculous when you consider that many of the same congressmen that want to continue this boondoggle are against government spending for such things as high speed rail service. Weaponized Keynesianism, as Rep. Frank points out.

Being a veteran, as I said, I have had some firsthand experience with wasteful military budgeting and of course defense contractors have long been bastions of corruption: easy to do when you have people howling that if we cut a single penny from defense spending that nearly matches every other country in the world combined that the bad guys are gonna come over and rape your daughters or blow up your local Wal-Mart or whetever.

And once more I am at a loss to say what we can do about it. There's a lot of money involved here and the people who control it have no compunctions about killing anyone who gets in their way. Even, perhaps, Presidents. It's quite possible (though I am not making any claims) that President Kennedy was killed because he was intending to scale down the war in VietNam. All I know is, whatever the motives and morals of our soldiers and their commanders, the more weapons we have out there, the more people will feel inclined to use them. And being the biggest bully on the block just makes you a target.

Michael Jackson 1959 - 2009

He was the punchline to a lot of jokes, many in poor taste. He was also one of the hardest working child performers in the entertainment industry, something that probably led to his behavior later in life. Some people fervently believe all the nasty things that were said about him just because they have an irrational hatred of anyone who has wealth and fame that wasn't earned being a "bidnessman", that is, by scamming people. I for one tend to be very forgiving of people with true talent, just like a certain traveler in Greek mythology:

But Leodes ran forward and clasped Odysseus’ knees, and begged with winged words: ‘Odysseus, respect the suppliant at your knees: I ask for mercy. I swear I have never wantonly wronged a woman of your house, in word or deed. Instead I tried to restrain others from doing so. But they would not listen, or keep their hands from evil, and so through foolish wantonness they meet a cruel fate. And I, though I am only their innocent priest, will die with them. It is true one gets no thanks for good deeds.’

Resourceful Odysseus gave him an angry look and said: ‘If you were really their priest you must often have prayed that the day of my joyful return would be long delayed and that my loyal wife would go with you and bear you children. For that you will not escape a sorry death.’

With this he grasped the sword in his strong hand that Agelaus had dropped on the ground nearby as he fell, and struck Leodes hard on the neck, so that while he was still trying to speak his head bit the dust.

And now the minstrel, Phemius, Terpius’ son, whom the Suitors forced to sing, tried to flee his dark fate. He stood by the side door, with the clear-voiced lyre in his hands, uncertain whether to slip from the hall, and seat himself by the massive altar of Zeus, God of the Court, where Laertes and Odysseus had burned so many offerings, or whether to run forward and clasp Odysseus round the knees in supplication. He decided the better course was to clasp the knees of Odysseus, Laertes’ son, so he set the pyre on the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-embossed chair, and rushing forward gripped Odysseus by the knees, and entreated him in winged words: ‘Odysseus, respect the suppliant at your knees: I ask for mercy. Sorrow will come to you later if you kill a minstrel who sings for gods and men. I am self-taught, and the god has filled my mind with every kind of song. I am worthy of singing for you, as for a god. Don’t be eager to cut my throat. Telemachus, your brave son, is my witness, too, that I never came to sing in your house willingly, but the Suitors dragged me here by force of numbers.’

Royal Telemachus heard his words, and spoke swiftly to his father nearby: ‘Wait, don’t put an innocent to the sword: and we should spare Medon, the herald, too, who used to care for me as a child in this house. Unless that is Philoetius or the swineherd has already killed him, or he has met with you as you raged through the hall.’

Medon, the wise, heard his words where he lay, covered in a newly flayed ox-hide, trying to evade his fate, by cowering beneath a chair. He rose at once and threw off the hide, then dashed forward and clasped Telemachus round the knees, and entreated him with winged words: ‘Here I am, dear boy: stay your hand, and persuade your father to restrain his, lest he wounds me with that sharp bronze in an excess of strength, enraged by the Suitors who ravaged his house and foolishly denied you honour.’

But resourceful Odysseus smiled at him, saying: ‘Be calm! My son has saved you so you might know in your heart, and say to others, how much better it is to do good than evil. Now go outside, and sit in the courtyard away from the killing, you and the versatile singer, till I have done what I must in this house.’

-The Odyssey Bk XXII:310-377

Well, I Passed

I'm now a certified A+ IT technician.

That and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

Shallow Meanderings

An oldie but a goodie.

Godspeed, Mark Sanford

Laudable Fervor

In an editorial for the NY Times, Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review writes:

In their outrage over the Ricci verdict, I suspect, conservatives have gotten carried away by their laudable fervor against race-conscious policies. But we on the right, of all people, should know that not every wrong has a judicial solution.

The case in question involves a white firefighter in New Haven, Connecticut

who in 2003 passed a test to get a promotion, only to see the city throw out the test because black firefighters were not doing well on it. Mr. Ricci sued in federal court and lost.

Mr. Ponnuru is trying to appeal to the "better instincts" of his fellow conservatives, but as I see it, if the leadership of the Republican Party, aka "The Regional Party Of The Old Confederacy", their financial backers, and no doubt millions of their constituents had their way, they would turn every person of color (and probably every non-white person as well) back into slaves, and then fight with one another in an attempt to corner the market. That's probably the only "originalism" they're interested in.

WIndows 7

I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 from Microsoft and installed it on one of our refurbished machines (2.6G dual core w/ 1G RAM) and was very impressed. Ran very well. It has the ease of use of Windows XP plus some very nifty features. Glad to see they learned from the Vista disaster...